The present invention relates generally to improved means and methods for processing documents using electronic imaging, and more particularly, to the use of electronic imaging for processing financial documents, such as checks and related documents in a banking environment. Today's financial services industry is facing the immense challenge of processing huge amounts of documents efficiently. Predictions that document payment methods would decline have not been realized. In fact, document payment methods have grown worldwide and are expected to continue increasing. There is thus a vital need to devise improved means and methods for processing such documents.
The use of imaging technology as an aid to document processing has been recognized as one way of significantly improving document processing, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,205,780, 4,264,808, and 4,672,186. Generally, imaging involves optically scanning documents to produce electronic images that are processed electronically and stored on high capacity storage media (such as magnetic disc drives and/or optical memory) for later retrieval and display. It is apparent that document imaging provides the opportunity to reduce document handling and movement, since these electronic images can be used in place of the actual documents.
However, despite technological advances in imaging in recent years, prior art document processing systems employing imaging, such as disclosed in the aforementioned patents, do not realized sufficient improvements to justify the added implementations costs.